EU Commissioner wants fast internet for all Europeans through internet satellites – IT Pro – News

Thierry Breton, the current EU Commissioner for the Internal Market and former CEO of the current Orange and Atos, has said in an interview that a new satellite system must be created to provide all Europeans with fast internet.

The details of the interview Reuters had with Breton do not provide any further details about this plan for a European constellation of Internet satellites. It will probably start to resemble something like SpaceX’s Starlink plan, which will eventually have to consist of many satellites in order to provide worldwide coverage. It seems that Breton mainly refers to a satellite network that is only intended for Europeans.

Breton indicated that the European Union wants to invest more money in rocket launches, satellite communications and scientific exploration missions to keep up with Chinese and American ambitions. “Space is one of Europe’s greatest strengths and we give ourselves the opportunity to accelerate things,” said Breton.

He says that for the first time, money from the EU budget is being used for new technology to launch missiles, which also includes reusable missiles. In this context, an agreement with Arianespace worth € 1 billion has been concluded to give the company ‘more visibility’ in exchange for more innovation.

Breton recognizes that SpaceX has redefined the standard for launches. In that context, he considers Ariane 6 to be a necessary step, but he thinks we should think about Ariane 7 now. Ariane 6 is likely to air for the first time next year. This rocket builds on Ariane 5. Above all, it has to increase the number of launches and significantly reduce the costs per launch. However, it is not yet a design in which reusability plays a role. That may play a role in Ariane 7.

The Commissioner hopes that the European Commission will embrace the plan to invest EUR 16 billion in space. This plan, incidentally, dates from 2018 and covers the period from 2021 to 2027; the European Parliament agreed to this last year. A large part of this budget must go to Galileo and Copernicus; the latter is the EU’s Earth observation program. Galileo is the existing European satellite navigation project; Breton wants the schedule to replace the relatively older Galileo satellites with newer ones to be brought forward. As far as he is concerned, that should start in late 2024 instead of 2027.

Furthermore, the EU Commissioner wants to start work on a Space Traffic Management system to avoid collisions in traffic and wants a billion euros to be invested in a European Space Fund to help start-ups.